Disclaimer: Still don't own it. Getting tired of writing disclaimers. Wondering if I should buy the rights to the book from JKR so I won't have to write any more disclaimers.
The rest of the summer went by in a flash, and before I knew it, it was time to begin my first year at Hogwarts. Dad drove me to King's Cross station, where he showed me how to go through the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10. Platform 9 ¾ was jam-packed, and I had barely enough room to breathe, much less actually find my way to the train. Somehow I managed, and I searched around until I found a mostly empty compartment. Apparently Zach and Jim had not yet arrived, although it seemed the rest of the school had.
The compartment had only one other occupant, a small, blonde girl who looked at me shyly. "Hi," I said as I came into the compartment. "Mind if I sit here?"
"No, not at all," she replied, so I sat down next to her.
"My name's Emerald Jones," I introduced myself, "but I prefer to be called Mera. What's your name?"
"Rachel Smith," she said. "Both my parents are—what do you call them?—Muggles, and I'd never even heard of Hogwarts until I got my letter. Imagine, all the crazy stuff that happened around me wasn't a poltergeist after all."
"What's it like to grow up with Muggles?" I asked. I'd always wanted to know. My adopted brother, Ryan, had never been able to give a satisfactory answer, because he'd been raised in an orphanage before my parents had adopted him.
"I haven't known any other life, so I wouldn't know what to compare it with," Rachel answered.
I was rather disappointed. "Oh. Okay."
Having exhausted the possibilities for conversation, I got out my Spanish-English dictionary. I'd already looked through the Latin-English dictionary until it began to fall apart, without finding anything very similar, so I'd given up on that. But Spanish was a Romance language, so I figured that maybe it would have something. All spells came from Latin, of course, but my Latin-English dictionary couldn't have every single Latin word.
Zach and Jim arrived presently, and introduced themselves to Rachel. Immersed in my search as I was, I almost failed to notice them, but I have a knack for being able to read and walk at the same time, without running into anything, so I have to be observant when I'm reading. "Hey Zach," I said. "Hey Jim." I didn't even look up from the dictionary.
Then I found it.
morde|dura f bite. ~r [2] vt bite; (fig, quitar porciones a) eat into; (denisgrar) gossip about. • vi bite
"Finally!" I exclaimed.
"What?" Rachel asked, trying to look over my shoulder.
"It's been absolutely driving me up the wall!" I was still lost in my own little world, and didn't realize that this explanation didn't tell them anything.
"What has?" Jim inquired.
"Morsmordre." That wasn't much help, either, since none of them had ever heard the spell to conjure the Dark Mark.
Rachel was confused, as well she should be. "Huh?"
"It's the spell to conjure the Dark Mark." I was still oblivious, and didn't realize that that explanation was sure to freak them out.
"What?!" Rachel demanded.
"Don't let anyone else know you know how to conjure the Dark Mark," Jim warned. "Where'd you learn it, anyways?"
"Out in the woods. The person who conjured it was close by. And I don't really know how to conjure it; I'm sure there's more to it than just saying the spell," I assured them.
Zach's response was, "So?" Naturally I'd already told him about being near where the Dark Mark was conjured, and he was eager to hear why the spell was driving me nuts—and how that was possible, for I was already insane.
"Most spells come from Latin," I explained. "Mors means death, but I couldn't find mordre in my Latin dictionary. It was driving me crazy."
"You're already crazy," Jim muttered.
"So?" Zach repeated. "Then what?"
I continued, "I decided to look in my Spanish dictionary, since Spanish is a Romance language."
Zach was getting impatient. "And?"
"It was in there. Sort of. Morder was in there. Morder means to bite, or to eat into."
Zach's eyes widened. "Death Eater!"
"My thought exactly," I said.
Please review! Tell me what you think. Are the kids still too smart?